55 Donate blood to Akyem Oda Hospital

Fifty-five volunteers last Saturday donated 55 pints of blood to the Akyem Oda Government Hospital which was in dire need of blood to enhance its work.

The Community Group of Companies comprising two Oda-based private radio stations, Community FM and Strong FM organised the blood donation exercise which was sponsored by eight organisations at Oda.

The sponsors were Be Kind Enterprise, Frimpong Enterprise, Sammy Agro Chemicals, Jehovah Jireh Cosmetic and Mother Care Centre, Reginald Ventures, Fat Joe Phones and Accessories, Thy Grace Bakery and Ampabees Construction Limited.

The National Ambulance Service supplemented with items such as T-shirts and bags. The blood donors were presented with tins of milk, milo, loaves of bread, T-shirts, bags and certificates.

Among the voluntary donors was Henrietta Marfo Acquah, the wife of the Member of Parliament for Oda, Alexander Akwasi Acquah, who is also a Deputy Minister of Health.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Mrs Acquah said she took the initiative to encourage as many people as possible to emulate her example. The other donors included the staff of the two FM stations led by their General Manager, Maxwell Kofi Anti, teachers, students, traders and businessmen.

The first voluntary donor, a 26-year-old Accra-based trotro driver said while on his way to Oda from Accra, he saw a banner at the Oda Government Hospital requesting voluntary blood donors, so he decided to get down from his vehicle to donate blood to save lives.

Another donor by the name Nana Agyemang Attafuah said it was his second time donating blood to a hospital, adding that his first blood donation was six years ago when Angel FM organised a similar exercise in Accra.

Two donors, Gabriel Owusu, 43, who travelled from Bawjiase after hearing radio announcements and Elizabeth Boateng, a 25-year-old teacher at Oda, said they voluntarily donated the blood because they felt sad whenever they heard that people had lost their lives for lack of blood in hospitals.

Need

Speaking to the media, the acting Medical Superintendent of the Oda Government Hospital, Dr Felix Asiedu, said he was grateful to the management and staff of the two radio stations and the voluntary blood donors for their gesture.

He stressed that as the hospital was a referral facility serving many people from parts of the Eastern, Central and Ashanti regions, it always needed blood to save lives. Dr Asiedu said the hospital's main source of blood supply was Zip Line, a company located at Suhum which provided essential medicines to hospitals through drones.

He appealed to the public to patronise blood donation exercises at hospitals in their numbers for the facilities to have a reserve at its blood bank at all times to save lives.

Dr Asiedu thanked the Eastern Regional Director of Health Services for allowing the blood donation exercise to take place at the hospital and also the media for giving the exercise the deserved publicity which resulted in its tremendous success.

The General Manager of Community Group of Companies, Maxwell Kofi Anti, thanked the donors, the hospital management and staff, and the sponsors of the programme. He urged the hospital’s management to contact the group anytime the facility needed blood.